Optimizing Email Content for Mobile Success

With an increasing number of users accessing their inboxes solely through mobile devices, marketers must optimize their campaigns for the small screen. Failing to create mobile-friendly email campaigns can significantly decrease open and click-through rates.

In this article, we will examine why optimizing emails for mobile devices is critically important and provide tips in creating emails that look great across smartphones and/or tablets. 

Why Is Email Optimization Important?

Litmus’ 2021 State of the Email report highlighted that 44.7% of users use mobile devices to open their emails. In addition, eMailmonday’s 2021 Ultimate Mobile Email Statistics showed that 26% – 78% of email opens are from mobile devices, depending on your campaign type, product, and target audience.

Based on these results, nearly half of the general public uses mobile devices to open and read their emails, making mobile optimization a huge part of modern emails.

First, to understand the importance of optimizing your emails for mobile devices, let’s define mobile email marketing.

Mobile email marketing is the process of optimizing your emails to be mobile-friendly. It often involves finding the right layout and design so your email fits smartphone devices, making it easily accessible to mobile device users.

If your email campaigns are not mobile-friendly, you’re likely driving away potential customers and endangering your conversion rates. Adestra’s 2016 Consumer Adoption & Usage Study revealed that 71.6% of users will delete emails if they’re not mobile-friendly.

Unoptimized emails can also result in decreased click rates, ROI, subscribers, and brand reputation, as you’re not providing mobile users with what they expect from your brand.

To get the best results, marketers should educate themselves on the best practices for mobile email marketing, which will be discussed in the next section.

How Can I Optimize My Campaigns?

• Make the Subject Line and Pre-Header Short

On average, a desktop inbox only displays about 60 characters of an email’s subject line, but mobile devices only show 30 characters. In determining the best length for your subject lines, you should better understand what devices (tablets, phones, or desktops) your subscribers use to access their emails.

If you have determined that a huge percentage uses their mobile devices, you should limit the subject line to 25-30 characters for optimal results.

The same goes for your pre-header text — the first line in your email that supports your subject line and provides more context. Pre-header texts are designed to entice your subscribers into opening your email.

That said, users might ignore your email if you ignore and overlook your pre-header texts.

To optimize this part of the campaign, you can vary the pre-header length and see what works best based on your understanding of what your subscribers use to open their emails (tablets, phones, or desktops).

• Keep the Content Mobile-Friendly and Short

Mobile-friendly email campaigns are composed of concise, scannable, and consumable content that often comes in short chunks of paragraphs, bulleted lists, or straightforward messages. That makes it easier for users to understand your email’s message.

• Choose the Right Images for the Campaign

By default, not all mobile devices display images. You can opt for an “images off” campaign for optimal reading, but ensure the copy still makes sense. Bear in mind that images are elements that support the surrounding text, not the other way around.

• Test Your Emails Across Different Devices

Before sending your email, test it across different devices and users to ensure it appears as expected.

Sources:

1. Mailmodo. (n.d.). Mobile Email Design Guide.

2. Litmus. (n.d.). The State of Email.

3. Van Den Beld, B. (2022). Mobile Email Usage Statistics 2022.

4. Mailmodo. (n.d.). Email Analytics Guide.

5. Pipedrive. (n.d.). Mobile Email Marketing: Best Practices.

6. Campaign Monitor. (n.d.). Mobile-Friendly Email Tips